Hanne Lippard
Flesh
20 January – 9 April 17

Hanne Lippard, Life is short und dann, 2016, Photo: Daniele Tognozzi

KW Institute for Contemporary Art is pleased to present the first institutional solo exhibition by Norwegian artist Hanne Lippard (born 1984 in Milton Keynes, GB). Over the past years, Lippard has focused herself on the production of language solely through the usage of the voice. Her practice stems from design by which she utilizes the voice as a way to convey the discrepancy between content and form.

Lippard inaugurates the new program of KW with a visually reduced yet spectacular work that takes its inspiration from the so-called Circle Works and early Statements by South-African artist Ian Wilson (born 1940 in Durban, ZA), who is known for solely working with oral communication. While the Circle Works were the last physical works the artist realized, the Statements represent a purification and subtraction of the work form to an immaterial act which is only determined through spoken language and dialogue.

As a response to Wilson, Lippard conceived a new production titled Flesh, an immersive installation, which takes up the entire ground floor hall of the KW building and confronts the visitor with one singular element—a spiral staircase. When ascending the stairs, one enters an awkwardly shaped space that incorporates the upper windows of the ceiling as a point of view outside of the exhibition hall. The newly created space is emerged by the artist’s voice, which slowly directs the audience towards a world where the meaning of language is being shaped, structured and categorized. Like Wilson, Lippard uses her body and words to counterfeit perimeters given by established standards in art production and creates a universe where the audience is physically as well as mentally brought outside of their confinements.